Christa,

In response to your three burning questions:

1. We did discuss this, with a focus on underlining the social nature of language and therefore the need for social approaches to language learning. In this context formal classroom language learning (even that informed by social approaches), can only provide part of the support that adults need to acquire the host language. However, EBSN works at policy level and so discussions of pedagogy took second place to broader structures and processes etc.

2. Not anything I know of, but would be interested to hear about it if others do.

3. The conference did not identify specific basic skills - that's not the job of such a conference. In general EBSN works with a reasonably narrow definition of basic skills (writing, reading, numeracy and ICT). However, members in the different countries also introduced a series of soft skills as also being basic (or foundational). The UK's Learning and Work Institute for example is currently promoting a citizens' curriculum, which includes: Literacy Capability, Numeracy Capability, Civic Capability, Digital Capability, Health Capability, Financial Capability.

The EC's Key Competences (currnetly under review) provide another frame through which to examine what adults need to be able to do in order to prosper in society.

EBSN will post resources etc from the conference on EPALE as soon as possible.

Best wishes

David

Thank you for the opportunity to be informed through this platform, especially since I am not able to join the conference. I'm delighted that in this conference, language and basic skills are joined; and it may also be a good opportunity to ask my three "burning questions": 

Do you also discuss different pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning? For instance, constructive/social teaching (social tasks) in addition to classical teaching (school tasks)?

I was wondering if there is any research into the use of translation software and digital devices to support direct communication between -for instance- medical doctors and migrants. Since even A2-level is still very basic and much attention is being given to language proficiency at an individual level (teaching/lessons), there may be alternative methods to improve communication between foreign-language-speakers at a technological level (and thus, available to many).

Lastly: can you specifiy which basic skills for integration have been identified? In a participatory method, the participants are asked to map which issues are most pressing and relevant to them and which skills they need to develop to function in their daily life environment. In our experience, (physical and mental) health, communication skills and parenting are often mentioned as issues for learning.

I'm looking forward to more news about the conference tomorrow. Keep up the good work!

It was great to see so many open minded people playing New Amigos in different language combinations! I hope this will lead to new language combinations beeing developed and available in many countries so more people can learn language and culture from each other while making New Friends at the same time.